New Release: MURDER FOR REEL: Movies in the '50's by Alondra Deltoro
Murder for Reel: An Usherette Mystery by Matt Ferraz
Katrina Stevens, a young woman working in a movie theater in the late 1950s, is taken aback at just how...climactic her first day on the job was. The theater, set in Emberview, Colorado, is called “Palladium Film Theater” and is said to be the most popular spot in town. The place is run by Don Keller, who has had the theater in business for over 30 years. Katrina works as an usherette and during her first night working at the theater, the unthinkable happens. During the screening for a science fiction movie, it was found out that Don Keller was murdered up in the projection booth! Now, with the owner passing away, the theater was facing closure and was on the very brink of shutting down. Katrina Stevens, however, takes it upon herself to organize a film festival using the old reels left behind by Don to get together what would hopefully be enough funds to keep the theater going. While Katrina has arranged all of these plans, Don’s killer was still out on the loose and even on the prowl as well. Katrina hasn’t lost hope in finding him and now more than ever needs to catch him because if not, both the theater AND her own life are in danger.
CINEMA IN THE ’50s
Taking note that this story takes place in the ’50s, I’d like to put the spotlight on what cinema was like back then since the subject plays an important role in Matt Ferraz’s “Murder For Reel.”
The film industry was under attack by the introduction of a new rival: television! By the 1950s, nearly half of all the homes in America had a TV. By 1953, color was brought to the television screens. As a result of families now owning their own television sets, fewer and fewer people were going out to see movies. The kids, however, were all flocking to the theaters! But, naturally, since the demographic was so young, they were unable to generate enough funds to keep the industry afloat at the time; thus the need for them to ramp it up a couple of notches to get the whole family in the theaters.
The lack of enough attendance in the theaters caused the cost to make a movie to rise sharply. The film industry had to come up with a way to get Americans back into the theaters by offering them content TV wouldn’t be able to provide. This meant bigger screens, better visuals, sound quality, enhanced colors, the introduction of new genres, more sex, more violence. The main advantage that movie theaters had over television was its technology, so they prioritized having the experience of going to the movies being a unique one that you couldn't get anywhere else when watching media. What really relaunched the film industry was bringing in the concept of “3D” imagery onto the screens. In 1952, with the movie Bwanna Devil, the box office broke records all across the country! But...the success of 3D movies was short lived because of varying different factors such as the cost of it being too high for the consumer, the discomfort experienced with the polarized glasses needed to watch the film, and reduced quality of the image due to the outdated technology in certain theaters.
WHAT MOVIE COULD HAVE BEEN PLAYING ON THAT NIGHT?...
The question dawned on me so I turned to the internet as one does and searched the “most popular sci-fi movie in 1957” and…
The Incredible Shrinking Man was one of the firsts to pop up!
The movie is about a man by the name of Scott Carey who, while on a boating trip was exposed to a radioactive cloud. It wasn't until several months after the matter that he began to experience a change in his...stature. He notices that he has shrunk several inches! He visits a doctor but to no avail and continues to decrease in height from what at first was inches to what has now turned into feet. All the while, Scott experiences drastic changes to his mood, now becoming bitter and hostile. His poor wife became a victim of his aggression. Soon enough his life gets put under a microscope after gaining attention nationally over his condition. Will he ever find a cure?
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
http://onemovieblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/size-matters-televisions-effects-on.html